Tuned in: During a KILI radio program on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Beverly Pipe On Head and Cornell Conroy used Lakota and English to call on fellow tribal members to participate in the 2014 election.

Sexual Assaults on Campus

by Felina Silver Robinson

Through the years I’ve read a number of articles about unsolved sexual assaults on college campuses around the world. Often times I’ve felt that these cases may have gone unsolved because those meant to solve them have an underlying impression that the victims were deserving of their assault. We all have our own impressions of the behavior of college students. It’s true that some students may dress provocatively, exude a promiscuous image while giving young men the wrong impression. Any parent, psychologist, or psychologist knows that young adults experiment with a great number of things before settling down to the level of maturity they will need to live an adult life. Regardless of any persons appearance or behavior, young or old, isn’t an open invitation for sex. If someone hasn’t verbally asked for it, then don’t assume you have a right to what is not yours. Being married or in a relationship doesn’t give you the right to expect sex either.

For most parents the idea of sending their children away to college is a hard one. Today, violence of all kinds is so out of control we are all living in fear of just taking our dogs for a walk where even they are in risk of attack.

When students are excitedly filling out their college applications one thing they shouldn’t have to think about is what their risks are of being sexually assaulted will be. They definitely shouldn’t have to wonder how safe their campus will be. But I’m almost certain that today not only are the students thinking about it, their parents are too.

Drinking alcohol, experimenting with drugs and whatever else young people are doing today, unfortunately gives these sick predators headway into the acts they tend upon committing. Sometimes predators don’t know that the act will happen until it’s too late, by then all they care about is themselves and clearing out before anyone can finger them for the act. Other predators want their victims to know they did, but terrorize them to point where they know their victim won’t utter a word for fear of what might happen to them down the line including another assault or more likely death.

My words are indeed meant to scare you into the reality of the life around you. When we take things too lightly that’s when they get worse. Truly, I just want there to be an awareness about the misconceptions that people have about one another. Taking what’s not yours and what’s not offered to you should come at the highest cost, which should be your freedom. Victims carry their scars whether they be physical or emotional, for the rest of their lives. Therapy can only help so much. Attackers usually have no conscious, because it’s all about them. Well, I say it’s past their wake up time. Law enforcement, Campus Administrators, Lawyers and Parents, need to take a step up to protect their victims. Maybe, just maybe frat houses should become a thing of the past since they have continued for decades to be a big part of the problem. College life shouldn’t be remembered as the number of days a student spent in a drunken stupor or for how many women they took advantage of and had no price to pay for it.

I would just like to solute Sabrina Rubin Erdely for her chilling report “A Rape on Campus,” without her report UVA College Administrators would still have their eyes closed. My one wish is to have more eyes open to the seriousness of the problems all of our young adults are faced with. Bring back the safety and the natural joy of college life. College is about learning not boozing and assaulting innocent victims. I still have 4 out my 6 children with college life ahead of them and at this point, I can honestly say, I’m not looking forward to it.

Togiak voter support specialists Stephanie Poulsen, left, and Angel Aoiojiak, using VHF radio (a kind of village-wide party line) to announce a potluck later this evening to celebrate Election 2014. They’ll spend the day helping elders and others get to the polls.